[b-hebrew] word order
David Kummerow
farmerjoeblo at hotmail.com
Tue Nov 29 22:08:46 EST 2005
> On Tuesday 29 November 2005 04:49, you wrote:
> > On 25/11/2005 01:05, Dave Washburn wrote:
> > > ...
> > >
> > >I'm one of them. I find it amusing that anyone uses a statistical
> > > argument for a base order of VSO, because the statistics are heavily
> > > skewed by the frequency of the wayyiqtol, which just about everyone
> > > agrees is a converted (i.e. secondary, not basal) form. ...
> >
> > I'm not one of them. And I would have thought "just about everyone" is
> > an exaggeration. An alternative view which I thought was quite widely
> > accepted is that WAYYIQTOL is in fact a more original and ancient form,
> > an old proto-Semitic verb form, to which is attached the vav marking the
> > clause boundary. Because this form adheres to the original VSO word
> > order and is not used in secondary constructions in which the verb has
> > moved, the vav has become inseparable. - or perhaps jussives are
> > WAYYIQTOLs without their vav. I don't claim that this is necessarily
> > true, but I have seen no clear evidence that WAYYIQTOL is secondary,
> > rather than primary and reflecting the original dominant Hebrew word
> order.
> Can you give a reference or two, something published that sets forth this
> view? I'll try to do the same for the description I gave.
>
Eskhult (pg 25) says: "... the manner in which classical Hebrew
narration lets every single act be featured by its own finite verb,
clearly precipitates the use of narrative chains, where a connective
element, as wa-, is indispendible."
Eskhult, Mats. Studies in Verbal Aspect and Narrative Technique in
Biblical Hebrew Prose. Studia Semetica Upsaliensia 12. Stockholm:
Almqvist & Wiksell, 1990.
DeCaen takes the view that wayyiqtol is modal coordination, ie jussives
are wayyiqtol minus way-.
DeCaen, Vincent. "On the Placement and Interpretation of the Verb in
Standard Biblical Hebrew Prose." PhD diss., University of Toronto, 1995.
A difficulty is discerning whether wayyiqtol is the result of attaching
the conjunction to a preterite verb as Peter suggests---ie [conjunction
+ preterite verb]; if this is the case, the conjunction attached to
wayyiqtol would have to be viewed as an alternate form---or if wayyiqtol
is the diachronic grammaticalised result of a once [conjunction + clitic
+ verb]. If so, wayyiqtol may then be analysed as previously displaying
a V2 clause structure (cf Holmstedt's "triggered inversion"), not
necessarily verb-first. But it may depend on one's theoretical position
regarding what constitutes the core of a clause and what does not.
Regards,
David Kummerow.
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